Alien: I see. So, your kind inhale cancerous toxins because the effects of temporary poisoning are experienced as pleasurable by some of your species?
Me: yes, in various forms, but you have to understand that the primary reason I and others in our species participate in this particular ritual is to ritually invoke erotic mating behaviors by using a phallic symbol to communicate our readiness to copulate and our laxness with traditional contending ritual doctrines discouraging mating.
Alien: Ah, so this goes back to that Freud guy you talked about before.
Me: on some level. He had some less advanced analytical technologies but they were typical of his era.
Alien: I see. And this is a “heterosexual” behavior?
Me: actually the ritual itself is sexuality agnostic. By invoking primary images of sexuality, we’re able to utilize these symbols outside of their conventional contexts, by making symbolic references to them.
Alien: are these references like the references you mentioned in rust programming of memory pointers?
Me: yeah, you got it! and therein lies the eroticism of programming the machine. It’s why the machine is related to sexually by many humans.
Alien: fascinating.
Me: humans also use this ritual to find willing mates by prompting other humans to ask us if they can participate in the ritual with us. But this isn’t always the case, and that ambiguity —
Alien: creates tension in the uncertainty. It’s all play again, I see.
Me: precisely.
Alien: can I bum a smoke off you?
Me: ;)
Alien: ;)
